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I’m not sure if you’re keeping track or not, but this is the third variation I’ve shared in two weeks using the exact same recipe. Woohoo for easy versatility! Today we’re taking our Simple Make-Ahead Parmesan Meatball recipe and basically smashing the mixture into Simple Make-Ahead Parmesan Burgers. Are we smart or are we smart?

The idea came to me as I was working ahead to make a bunch of Parmesan Meatballs for the freezer. Either I got tired of scooping out meatballs, or I got a brilliant idea. It might have been both. After scooping out about 2 1/2 pounds of meatballs, I decided to abort my meatball endeavor. I took my remaining mixture and formed it into burger patties. I froze them, then we pulled them out to fry another day.

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Is it possible? Am I actually going to present you with a Tator Tot Casserole? Yes, and I feel no shame. I have purchased the tator tots and I have put them onto a casserole and I am sharing the recipe with you here today.

I was able to simply adapt the original recipe I was given many years ago to turn it into a mostly “real food recipe.” No cream of mushroom soup here! Still just as delicious. Everything in this casserole is wholesome and good. But the tator tots on top? I dumped them right out of the bag and I ignored the ingredient list and well, that is all. I just did.

Remember that one time I experimented and came up with a way to make Homemade Tator Tots? Who even was that girl anyway? She sure was ambitious! And fun and creative. But now? Well, I just don’t spend my time making tedious recipes anymore. And typically I don’t use packaged ingredients in recipes. But I got a hankering for my childhood favorite Tator Tot Casserole and I just went for it!

Tator tots aside, everything else in this recipe is created from whole foods and great ingredients. They are likely ingredients you already have on hand, which makes this a simple and fun meal to serve your family.

This recipe freezes well, so while you’re making one Tator Tot Casserole, you might as well make two or three. Then you can freeze the extras for a meal on a busy day!

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Is there anything better than a Christmas Breakfast Casserole? YES. What’s better is a Christmas Breakfast Casserole that can be made ahead of time so you can wake up on Christmas morning and enjoy your family instead of working and cooking!

Today I will share my favorite Breakfast Casserole options, all of which are super fast and easy to make AND can be made with any variety of ingredients you want to put together. As an added bonus, these are both naturally gluten/grain free if that is a need for you!

(Why no bread in these recipes? What can I say? I don’t like soggy bread. Ha!)

First I will re-share my Easy Breakfast Casserole. Mix it up a day or two before Christmas and put it in the fridge. On Christmas morning, bake as directed!

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Did you know? You can bake your turkey ahead of time!

For me, this is the only way.

Now, of course, this means that at our house we don’t have a fancy “carve the turkey” tradition on Thanksgiving or Christmas day. But the trade-off is that I don’t have to walk into the kitchen and deal with a tepid, saggy turkey carcass after enjoying a special holiday meal. Worth it? A million times over.

Why should you bake your turkey ahead of time?

Let me count the reasons…

Because of the tepid, saggy turkey carcass, but we’ve already been through that already.

But speaking of the turkey carcass, when you make your turkey ahead of time, you’ll be able to save the said carcass and make incredibly Rich Broth and fantastic Turkey Gravy. So long live the turkey carcass (so to speak).

Instead of slaving over meal preparation on a holiday, YOU WILL GET TO ENJOY EATING THE ACTUAL HOLIDAY MEAL. That was me yelling to share the good news. I am so happy about this. Come one. Come all. Bake your turkey ahead of time!

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My favorite aspect of this Simple Overnight Pumpkin Spice French Toast Casserole is that I can get it completely ready the night before, then slide it into the oven in the morning without having to think, measure, talk, or care. Allow me to share with you a bit about myself and how mornings work for me.

I typically get up at least an hour before my family rolls out of bed in the morning. Do you know what that means? That means that for at least one hour every day no one talks to me, asks me questions, makes a request, or assumes I actually know the time of today’s soccer game. Once the people wake up, my brain must be on full power, ready to answer all the questions, write all the sentences, make all the reminders, plan all the meals, and remember to add toilet paper to the list.

For the first several years of my married-with-kids life, I woke up and immediately hit the ground running. My quiet time in the mornings meant I could actually accomplish something before a small child unraveled my efforts with his sticky but adorable hands. I could get work done without interruption and perhaps enjoy some productivity – in the quiet.

This was all well and good, except that I missed out on one very important aspect needed in life: actual quiet.

I was deceived into thinking that productivity meant checking tasks off my to-do list. Now I know the truth, that productivity can look like rest. Productivity can mean that I’m sitting, savoring, breathing, and simply being loved by the Father in the moments of quiet. Nothing in this world is more productive.

Do I miss out on that precious and much needed hour of work time? No. I absolutely do not. The work is still there. The work still gets done (no it doesn’t). There’s peace in my heart that didn’t exist before I started giving my days to God in the quiet, and this means much, much more than a house full of completed check-lists.

All that to say: Making this French Toast Casserole at night, then effortlessly slipping it into the oven first thing in the morning means that I can still present an amazing breakfast to my family while still enjoying my quiet morning with the Lord. (Though to be clear, sometimes I present a half-hearted breakfast of stale cereal because as easy as this recipe is, I don’t have time to do something like this every night. No one ever died eating the stale cereal and everyone is happier when Mom starts her day with Jesus.)

One of these things is not like the the other. Someone, who shall remain nameless, forgot to cut a donut hole in one of the donuts. Hmmm…

Indeed. We can mix up the pumpkin donuts, roll out the dough, cut the shapes, then freeze the uncooked dough on parchment paper or silicone mat-lined cookie sheets. We transfer the frozen dough into freezer bags, then any time we want fresh donuts (and when would we not want fresh donuts?), we can grab some out of the freezer and fry them up fresh to eat while sipping a cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate.

Can you think of a better breakfast treat to enjoy this fall than fresh homemade Pumpkin Donuts?

The best part is that the mixing, rolling, cutting, and clean up will have already been taken care of! Well, clearly the best part is eating the fresh donuts. But eating the fresh donuts without looking at a messy kitchen that you’ll have to clean up afterward? Fabulous.

Wow. Who knew we would ever be able to say, “I need some healthy fats in my diet. Please pass the donuts.”

But of course, let us not ever eat more donuts than veggies, yada, yada. You know the drill.

WAIT. There are veggies in these donuts (thank you, pumpkin, for being there for us when we need you). So I guess we can enjoy these to our heart’s delight, all while enjoying the fact that you can make them ahead and freeze them for ease in the kitchen.

Where has this tip been all my life?

I already knew how to make Bacon Bits ahead of time for ease in making salads and bacon-cheesy eggs. But strips of bacon? Well, I’d never tried making it ahead before. I will make bacon this way from now on because it is an incredible time saver!

Also, it keeps my hair from frequently smelling like bacon, so I think we can all be grateful for this delightful bonus.

How to Cook Bacon Ahead, Freeze, and Warm Up Fast

Place the rack of bacon on a baking sheet to catch the grease as it bakes.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 15-30 minutes (time varies based on thickness of bacon).

Pull bacon out of oven just before it has reached the crispiness level you prefer.

Allow bacon to cool on paper towels.

Transfer cooked and cooled bacon to a gallon-sized freezer bag. (I leave the cooked bacon on the paper towels when putting it in the freezer bags. That way I can do two-pounds at once with a paper towel in between layers of bacon.)

Freeze up to three months.

Rewarm bacon by taking desired amount of cooked bacon slices directly from freezer and heating them in a skillet for about 1 minute on each side.

More Bacon Posts You’ll Want to Check Out

Hey, what’s for dinner?

It’s the question of the day, right? The frustrating part is when I’m asked this question while in the middle of five other tasks…and I haven’t yet figured out the dinner plan. Ugh, sorry kids. Dinner is…something. I’ll have to get back to you on the specifics.

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Of all the recipes I share, this one is not the healthiest. Just whatever though, because corndogs taste amazing. (With a salad. And fruit. And digestive enzymes.) I’m providing a homemade option so that at least we’ll know these are better than store-bought.

First – try to find hotdogs that are nitrite free. Also, beef. Always beef hotdogs. Fine, turkey is okay too. Just try to avoid the hotdogs that are only pretending to be meat. I can’t even believe I’m still trying to convince myself that any form of a hotdog is healthy. But for real, at least try to find some that aren’t terrible. Why I like hotdogs is beyond me.

Now that we’ve covered the sacred topic of the hotdogs, allow me to share another compromise I make. This. We bought this fun corndog maker for one of our sons a few years ago as a gift because he is the ultimate corndog lover. (I have no idea where he gets this.) I think having dozens of appliances that only do one task each is fairly ridiculous. But shucks if having a corndog maker isn’t a lot of fun, so there. We’ve used it for more than just corndogs (like muffins and cookies – who knew?!) so hallelujah for an appliance that is actually multi-functional.

I will tell you that this machine makes the effort of creating homemade corndogs so easy and mess free that a few days ago, I made 48 corndogs in less than an hour – while I was making tomato sauce, French toast, and frozen yogurt. The corndog maker allows me to multitask while making food for my freezer. And here you thought that appliance was pointless.

Anyway….

The long and short of making homemade corndogs is that you simply use your favorite cornbread recipe, add a bit of extra milk so the batter will coat the dogs, then you either fry them in oil or bake them in the above mentioned corndog maker.

What about sticks?

Life is too short to poke sticks into hotdogs. Do the stick poking if you must, but as for me and my house, we will skip the sticks and just eat the dogs.

** I cut my hotdogs in half, then cook my corndogs in this fun Corndog Maker. It saves a lot of time and mess!

If you make these to freeze, all you have to do at mealtime is pull them out and warm them up while you’re getting out all the actual nutritious parts of the meal (fruits, veggies, and more veggies with a side of another vegetable).

Let’s not even talk about the kind that come out of a box. For all of the reasons, let’s just not talk about it.

Now regarding Homemade Poptarts (that are very easy to make, by the way): My family could eat the entire batch in one meal. I prefer to make them stretch though, and I prefer us to eat more balanced instead of filling up on carbs in the morning.

That’s why, just like the Giant Breakfast Cookies, I’ve been making these poptarts and freezing them before I bake them. On a day I declare to be a Poptart Morning, I pull a few out and bake enough for each person to have a couple with our eggs and fruit. They taste amazingly better this way and help my poptart making efforts stretch into several meals.

Can I tell you how delicious a warm, fresh poptart tastes with a cup of coffee? It’s one of my favorite treats (and it’s naturally very low in sugar!).

I encourage you to double this recipe so you can make a couple bags full of frozen, unbaked poptarts for quick breakfasts and snacks!

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Guess what?

One of my darling readers, Vicki, experimented with the Stir-and-Pour Dinner Rolls to see if we could make them even more convenient by making them ahead and freezing the dough. I won’t keep you in suspense!!! —–>

Okay, maybe just for a little bit.

I’m wearing a new sweater today. I got it on sale, of course. I got it the same day I got all the butter on sale. That was a great day for sales, no doubt. I sure do love good sales. And butter.

So how about those dinner rolls? Does it work to make and freeze the dough, just like we make and freeze muffin batter? Vicki tried it. She reported back. Drum roll please…

It worked!! This is great news, and much more relevant than pointless talk about my new sweater. Although the sweater led me back to talking about butter; and butter and rolls go together. Therefore everything I’m writing today makes sense and is on topic.

You must be wondering, is there even a way to make this very easy recipe even more convenient? I mean, how can it get easier than the Stir-and-Pour Bread and Stir-and-Pour Dinner Rolls recipes? But actually, it does. It gets easier. Vicki proved it.

Make and Freeze Stir-and-Pour Dinner Rolls

1. Mix the ingredients as normal.
2. Scoop batter into muffin pans. I super love my new silicone baking cups. I use them alllll the time.
3. Freeze dough immediately.
4. Remove frozen dough from muffin cups and transfer them to a freezer bag. Store in the freezer for up to three months.
5. To bake: Place frozen dough into muffin cups. Cover with a cloth. Thaw on the countertop for 4-6 hours.
6. Bake as directed.

Vicki said that these taste just as good prepared this way as they do when prepared fresh. I mean, these are still fresh. They’re just frozen first before baking them. I love this time-saving tip!

This is especially helpful for days such as…I don’t know…Thanksgiving maybe? That day we’re putting forty-seven ~ give or take ~ other dishes on the table all at the same time? If there is a way to dirty up fewer dishes and execute fewer food preparation steps, by all means, let us do it!Yum